photo friday: knitted

Given how cold it's been today I figured a little knitted artwork was more than appropriate.

We haven't visited our old friend the dot point round up in a while, and given that this evening kind of got away from me, let's try that...

• Josh and I took our "very long conversations" to a whole new level when I swung past his place last Sunday to pick up my Spirited artworks... and left four hours later.
• I finally heard from Tink on Tuesday, she had the baby on the weekend, another little girl... so there goes my theory about boys for all the pregnant ladies I know.
• Work has been a little quieter this week, only to get slightly mental today... but on the up side, something I was doing to keep myself occupied for the most part is something I was going to need to do next week anyway.
• I forgot Random Hotness again this week... I am wondering if it might be time to retire that particular feature, but then I would mostly end up just blogging on Fridays and Saturdays... I dunno, it's something to ponder.
• This morning on my walk I didn't exactly fall, but I slipped and even though I did an, under the circumstances, elegant slide to the floor rather than a fall, I still scraped my knee all to buggery.
• People who aren't me generally complain about the temperature of our office. And I won't lie, it's cool enough that I now wear layers in the office, but today was SO cold because of the wind that I was wearing a sweater AND a scarf for the whole day.
• I'm enjoying flicking between my usual chiro and the other chiro on staff (and for the purposes of clarity, at least to me, I'm going to start referring to them as Tick, my usual chiro, and Tock, the other chiro.. TOC, geddit)... especially since I got some shoulder massage action that rendered me physically speechless.
• This evening was the opening of Gary Seaman's new show Hiraeth at Tooth and Nail Gallery... and due to a rescheduled chiro appointment I was able to hang around the city and head along. It's definitely a different direction for Gary, and a couple of the pieces had me wishing for a) more available wall space and b) more disposable cash.
• I did get to hang out with Josh some more and say hi to Gary briefly, but it was also interesting now many other artists I recognised while I was wandering around, not to mention former clients of Josh's.

So not the most epic of weeks, but it definitely ended on a high note.

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my art collection

One of the good things about having time on my hands currently is being able to go down my mental "I'll do that one day when I get around to it" list and checking things off left, right and centre.

From putting together bookcases, to baking cookies, to clearing out excess junk from my apartment... and the latest item was photographing my art collection and creating a blog to house the photos so I can keep track of it all.

And it felt like that was almost all I did yesterday. Granted I didn't start until after 10am when the light in my living room was perfect for taking photos, and it took me a couple of hours to unpack or unwrap or get each individual piece of art in position (and there were a couple that I forgot to do, so I had to add a few more this morning).

Then after lunch I went through and processed all the images, set up a private second blog and spent the whole afternoon going through old blog posts, receipts and the listing of Espionage's former shows so I could get the dates, prices and everything right.

While I said last week, in my post about the aforementioned Espionage's crowdfunding campaign, that I somehow became an art collector without exactly realising it, it isn't until I laid out everything in the blog (and there are four extra pieces that got added this morning) that I really realised how true that is.

Between commercial available prints, limited edition pieces, originals, commissions, vinyl toys and even wearable artworks, the collection runs the gamut of both artists, styles and media. Having said that, both Gary Seaman and Cameron Brideoake feature rather prominently (and I would never have discovered Cameron if it hadn't been for Josh at Espionage).

And interestingly, while I keep thinking that it's all packed away, after a quick head count just now I actually have about half of it out on display. Granted most of the stuff that isn't on display is the big stuff.

It also made me wish I had more than just the one Benzo piece, since that was really the one that started it all.

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photo friday: boys and beaches

This has been a very weird short week...

Tuesday felt like Monday, except it was also Movie Night... but instead of going to Arndale, we went to the Picadilly in my neighbourhood.

Wednesday Owl Girl's boyfriend was getting a tattoo, which led to much tattoo related discussion and general mental space being taken up by thoughts of me and tattoos.

Which kind of culminated in an embryonic idea for a half sleeve tattoo on my right arm... involving the work of Benzo, Gary Seaman, Cameron Brideoake and another street artist. It'll involve actually commissioning individual pieces (and possibly very, very specific pieces) to make up a whole sleeve, I'm just completely sure of the exact thing I want from a couple of them. I know I want a piece of their work, just not the details.

So it's a musing thing... granted I've mused on tattoo things before and nothing has ever come of it, but I'm thinking if I commission things, it might spur the impulse.

Thursday I went to the new Rundle Plaza for the first time. It feels very... Sydney. Or else it feels like every other update of the suburban malls. I like that there's a Swatch store... I like that there's going to be an Apple Store even though I probably won't really buy anything from there... but the rest of it just feels like clothes, clothes and more clothes.

And the seating in the food court is a little... lacking. It needs more areas for people to sit alone, especially given that their major customers will be office workers.

But Harris Scarfes looks excellent, and I hated the old one.

Then Thursday evening I went off to Espionage Gallery for Gary Seaman and Scatterbrain's combined exhibition. Sadly, the piece I loved the most was already sold before the show even started, but that didn't stop me from buying a couple of smaller pieces.

One thing I did notice after I stood back and observed the pieces as a whole was that they were actually part of one giant image... individual elements are continued across multiple artworks, even if it's a very small part of some pieces. And half of the pieces were in pink, purple and lime green while the other half were blue, orange and turquoise.

And then there was today.

Today was fucking nuts.

Especially at the end of this afternoon where I was trying to do two things for two separate groups of people literally five minutes before I was due to walk out the door. And it also seems that Monday is going to be nuts, and it also looks like there's a bunch of extra work coming our way which won't be difficult, but somewhat dull.

On the upside, Burger Theory showed up pretty much a block away from work, so that was nice. And they're supposed to be showing up in the same spot for the next couple of weeks.

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photo friday: lacking in ruth and balls

The downside with all the Lego sports people is that none of them have any balls... you know, soccer balls or baseballs.

I had to go through and count out a lot of my coins this week... I went to put some new coins away and realised that I no longer had room in three of the four containers. So I spent a good chunk of the evening counting coins, putting them into piles and sticking them all in little bags.

I ended up with $1100... mostly in $1 and $2 coins. And I probably could have kept going but I ran out of little bags.

So that's pretty much the money to pay for the Sydney trip in April. We just need to actually book something now.

Or alternatively it covers a number of previous art purchases, including the two new pieces I bought at Espionage's second anniversary exhibition. Yes, I know... I have no room, blah blah blah... I'm kind of getting to that point where I want to go through everything I own and seriously downsize a lot of the pointless crap I own.

Part of the problem is something I've only really noticed lately, and that's that once I put something down somewhere it generally stays in that spot unless it has a permanent home somewhere else, in which case it will eventually find it's way back there. But otherwise it just stays.

That's why my old teevee stand has turned into a coffee table and why the tubs of Lego bricks Ma brought down probably a year ago and still sitting between the kitchen door and the fridge and why I still have the painted milk crate that the second dumpster I bought came in.

I need to be ruthless.

Now does anyone know how one gets rid of "ruth" because clearly I have too much of it presently.

I wandered into Myer at some point this week only to find that they've moved everything (particularly the toy department) off the top floor due to "refurbishments"... and once I found said toy department the same guy was there who has been there scoping out the Lego the previous two times I've been there.

It's officially weird now. Neither of is actually stalking the other, but it's starting to look like we are.

But as I wandered out through the book department I noticed they had the updated version of The Lego Book which I've been thinking about getting for a while now... and all books were 35% off. So now I have the book.

Yes, I know... I need much less ruth.

I also spoke to Gary at the Espionage exhibition about commissioning him to to a custom Kidrobot Foomi that Ma has had sitting in the box at her place since our Melbourne trip last year. So that'll be interesting. I haven't actually commissioned anything before.

And I heard some interesting news on the social media grapevine this evening... Burger Theory is opening another restaurant in the new building just off Rundle Street on Union Street. Which, if it's where I think it's going to be, will be perfect symmetry since that location is the place where they used to park their van.

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photo friday: art meets street

I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of Gary Seaman's new solo show, River, at Espionage Gallery last night. I felt a little bit like I was seeing behind the magician's curtain, because when I got there Gary hadn't actually finished one of the pieces, and was still busily writing the prices on the wall when the doors opened.

I'd been squirreling money away in the side of my wallet for this show for a while, and had a decent amount saved up. And I spent it all.

I also bought a piece of "set decoration" right off the wall... but that's going to happen when the decoration is a painted vinyl toy!

It was one of the busiest shows I've ever been to at Espionage... not only were people essentially throwing money at Josh for Gary's work and there were more red dots on pieces than I think I've ever seen at one of their shows.

And I actually spoke to someone... someone other than people attached to the gallery... which was nice.

I also had some minor fanboy moments when I realised a couple of other street artists were in attendance... Matt Stuckey (who's dumpster was, in fact, the second piece of art I bought after Benzo's print) and Ankles...

There were also a few faces that I recognised, either from previous Espionage shows or else from other art related things.

I had a little bit of a realisation this afternoon...well, not even a realisation, more of a reminder...

Sometimes things happen so that you can benefit directly... other times they happen so that you can help other people.

On Tuesday I missed out on getting one of the Colonel Light portraits that have been released from the art gallery... even though I waited around in town freezing my butt off for an hour.

But because I'd worked out the system of where they're being released, I was able to tell a friend of mine where to find the one that went out today.

And, to be honest, although I really, really liked the one I missed out on, I know that it meant more to my friend to get the one that she did than it would have meant to me to get the one earlier in the week.

So I'm going to chalk this one up in the "good karma" column...

Given both the gallery show and the two instances of escaping art, this week has felt very, very art orientated.

Plus I picked up the two pieces I bought from the previous Espionage show before I left the gallery...

I really do need to find some way to display all this art though... I did have a thought earlier tonight that may work... it could be completely impractical and may also be an indication that I've been reading DIY home decorator blogs for too long.

It would also involve me having to find a way to get very large things delivered to my house... so, yeah... not sure about that one.

I also need to document all my artworks... I'm thinking either another blog... or maybe a static page on this one with photos of my art collection.

That'll require some thinking about...

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photo friday: mono streets

Yesterday was a "too much" day... too much stuff going on, too much coffee, too much sugar...

It all started when I got up 45 minutes early and was heading out the door to work an hour early. Well, not actually to work... but catching the bus, in the dark and the rain, nevertheless.

And there's surprisingly few people in the city around 7am compared with 8am!

The reason for my early morning was the toy sale at Target... and more specifically the fact that they had the Lego R2D2 in stock for 20% off... so that kind of made up my mind about getting it.

I did have a minor panic when I first got there because I could see any... but quickly realised that the boxes were on the floor behind me. Woohoo! It's a bloody big box though... and heavy, what with it being 2100+ pieces. But it's going away for Christmas, which is good because it means that I now have six months to work out where the fuck it's going to sit once I put it together.

After all that, I still got into work at 7:30... a whole half hour earlier than usual.

Then we had a morning tea for someone on the floor who was having a birthday, so there was much sugar consumed there. But after that somebody bought me a coffee. Now I'd already had my usual Thursday Strong Iced Coffee, but I had the coffee anyway.

That was possibly a mistake because I went a little loopy in the afternoon.

On the plus side though, the girl who's birthday it was wanted someone to go down to Burger Theory with her because she hadn't been before, and I was undecided about whether I wanted BT given that I'd eaten so much morning tea and I was planning on going to get one today. But I went with her because it was her birthday... and it turned out to be a good thing because they cancelled Victoria Square today due to the weather.

But yeah... coffee, sugar, afternoon, cray-cray...

So much so that I left work a few minutes early because I was completely over it all.

Then I came home, faffed about a bit and then went back into the city for the opening of the Winter themed exhibition at Espionage Gallery. For the first time the doors weren't already open when I got there, so I had to wait outside with a collection of the weird and freaky.

I'm still mostly saving myself for the Gary Seaman exhibition next week, but I did buy a couple of small pieces, one which was actually by Gary.

And, as usual, I did the "Look at art, judge art on the basis of whether I want to buy it, buy art, leave" thing that I do at gallery openings and then went to the supermarket to pick up something for dinner.

So I was a bit of a busy bee yesterday.

Today not so much... although I did order three of the new Kidrobot Dunny Series 2012 from Villain in Melbourne... and this is probably the first time that there hasn't been any in the series that I don't really want.

But that really means that I need to get my ass into gear about buying new bookcases, maybe streamlining some of my books and DVDs and finding new places for all my art and vinyl toys. It may also mean doing something I generally don't like doing... pushing my books back so that they line up along the back of the bookshelf and give me room in front, rather than lining up with the front of the shelves.

For now though all I need to decide is which of the two things I bought for dinner I actually want to make... it'll be chicken, I'm just not sure what I'm doing with it yet.

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espionage prints

"Summer of the Burger" by Jake Two, "This Side of the River, Part 1" by Gary Seaman,
"Phoenix" by Kate Kowald and "Armadillo" by Peter Fong

I went and picked up the prints I bought on Thursday night at lunch today... I have absolutely no idea where I'm going to put them... but they're very lovely!

Of course now I want "Part 2" of the Gary Seaman piece as well...

And I possibly need an "art" label for the blog...

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photo friday: good friday

Ahhh... the Zombie Jesus Weekend... it's good to have some time off again.

Although, really... the first four months of the year really are full of public holidays.

Today has been pretty restful... I slept in, tidied up a bit, had a shower, made a Lego Easter Bunny, played around online and then it was time to make the Fishy Crisps for lunch.

I actually think these are possibly the best ones I've ever made. There was only one that opened up... well, two if you count one of the two banana & honey parcels I made with the leftover pastry.

Then I watched a DVD and played on my PS3 for a bit. And dinner tonight is more of the Fishy Crisps with some salad... so that's sorted.

If today was restful, yesterday was unexpectedly upbeat and a little bit hyper.

Just before I got to work yesterday I was suddenly struck by an incredibly good mood... which I know sounds weird, but that's pretty much what it was... a sudden realisation of a good mood. Whether it was the realisation of the four day holiday (even though I don't get paid for it), or whether it was the particular song that I was listening to on my iPhone, I don't know.

But it stuck around all day, which was a bonus.

Of course that could have something to do with the obscene amount of sugar I consumed throughout the day. Like properly obscene. And all to celebrate two of our team's April birthdays.

We started off with giant Italian doughnuts coated in sugar... so tasty and not especially greasy, which is always good. Then after our staff meeting later in the day, we had teeny tiny cupcakes and some generic doughnuts and some other little goodies that, surprisingly, Banger made.

And then, even though I really wasn't especially hungry for more sugar, I did end up eating an Easter egg later in the afternoon.

So, by the end of the day, as you can well imagine, I was pretty much bouncing all the walls.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Then after work, I came home, went and dropped my pants off at the dry cleaners and got a giant bag of groceries from the supermarket... and while I was in the fruit and veg shop (which is directly across from the dry cleaners), the little woman who usually has my ticket ready for me on a Thursday afternoon came over to give me an Easter egg.

Hehehe... so sweet of them... but then I am an incredibly regular customer.

After I dropped my groceries off at home, I went back into the city and went to the Limited Edition print show opening at Espionage Gallery.

It's always good to get in to things like that early... I learned my lesson after the 100Bucks show last year... so I was there about fifteen minutes before the official opening.

And I think it only took me about five or so minutes to decide on buying four of the prints... basically, the first edition of each of the limited runs by Gary Seaman, Jake Two, Peter Fong and Kate Kowald.

I will admit that I possibly may have gotten a little carried away... since I walked out of the gallery with an empty wallet after paying the deposit. Remembering of course that yesterday was payday... and I not exactly sure what I still owe on them all... it was all a bit of a blur. A good blur... but, you know.

Oh, and I found out that not only is it the Adelaide Kite Festival this week, but also Nathan Sawaya's The Art of the Brick exhibition of Lego sculptures opens on Easter Monday and runs until June.

So we'll definitely be going to that one sometime after I get back from Sydney.

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morning street art safari

Thanks to an early morning visitor (you know the kind I mean) and having to take a drive afterwards, I was showered, dressed and felt like being out of the house quite early... which lead to a Street Art Safari in Bowden and the CBD...

It may also have given me an opportunity to release some more eyeBirds into the wild...

And discover some more of Peter Drew's Forgotten Outlaws...

Discover fantastic new works... and finally be able to put a name to the artist...

See some urban faces...

And discover a couple of well chosen words that made me smile...

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